Forums » General Roleplay » What Makes a Family {Private}

“You don’t know though! You have Julian and Jackson! You didn’t have to be by yourself and you still don’t have to cause Julian gets to sleep with you! Jackson too probably.” Piper sounded heartbroken and sad, fully removing herself from under the table. She supposed maybe a part of them wouldn’t understand and it wasn’t their fault.

She hugged Bruce to her chest and shrugged at Jacob’s suggestions.” M-Maybe you can sit with me until I’m asleep?” She asked hopefully. Piper’s tears were beginning to slow but she looked tired and miserable, a few new tears leaking out every now and then. Kate had let her sleep on the couch, rubbing her back until she fell asleep. The caseworker then worked on her laptop while sitting in the arm chair.

“I don’t want to be alone anymore. I’m always alone. Mama wanted to see the mean men and Kate and Sonjay are having a baby so they wouldn’t want me. My Daddy didn’t want me either, Mama said so. Nobody wanted me.” Piper muttered with a yawn, rubbing her eyes. All her screaming had worn her out.

Jacob hesitated, not sure how to handle this. Piper was right, they didn't fully know what it was to be completely alone all the time, but at the same time, they had a different sort of fear of being alone. It wasn't the same as Piper's fear, but it was no less or more horrifying. He didn't know if their own father had wanted them or not or if the man even knew they existed, and he had a feeling Piper's father didn't know she existed either. Perhaps their mother didn't even know who the fathers were. It wouldn't have surprised him, but that wasn't something to get into right now, and he certainly didn't want to try to explain why it didn't matter if the case worker wanted to keep her or not. That was something he didn't think Piper could understand right now. He decided to focus on the problem right in front of him and leave the more emotional and philosophical discussions for another day.

"I will stay with you until you fall asleep," he promised. "That's something I can do. And if you wake up in the night, you can come and get one of us." He paused and added, "Jules is your best bet for that. I sleep really deep, and I'm not easy to wake up. Jack and Jules both sleep lighter than me, but if you can wake me up, I'll come sit with you again. If you want, I'll leave my door open for you, too. You might be by yourself in your room, Piper, but you aren't alone anymore. And you're not unwanted. Now, can you go sit on your bed and wait for me? I promise I'll be right in to sit with you. I just need to get something first, and then I'll be in. You can leave the door open and the light on while you wait for me."

Piper gave a little sniffle and nodded, wanting to hug Jacob but she hesitated. She had expected to be in trouble for yelling at Julian and now that her emotions were beginning to simmer down, guilt and shame was replacing the fear. Well, the fear was still there but it was different. Jackson had probably heard it too and she felt stupid for helping to prove him right that she was too much.

“Thank you.” She mumbled, standing up. The storm in her eyes was gone but so was any kind of other emotion. She just stood up and walked to her room. She turned on the big light and the night light to it’s brightest setting then got into bed. She didn’t own any pajamas so she stayed in her day clothes. She crawled under the covers and hugged Bruce.

“M-Maybe Mama was right and Jack. I’m too much.” Piper spoke softly to Bruce.” You love me, right?” She asked the plushie. She made the plushie nod and she hugged him. There was no way she could go to Julian after she had yelled at him and what if Jack didn’t like how mean she was. Jacob said she wasn’t alone or unwanted so why did it still feel that way?

It took Jacob a couple of minutes to find what he wanted. He moved about, clattering a few things as he went and muttering to himself as he did so. After a while, he returned to Piper's room and stepped inside, holding a small, portable CD player in one hand, a rolled-up heating pad in the other, and the corner of an old pillow caught between his fingers. He went to the desk first and set up the CD player. It took him a little bit of fiddling to get it set up properly, but once he had it, he turned it on really low, and the gentle sounds of soft instrumental music came drifting through the speakers, barely audible, but it would sound louder once everything was still and silent. The heating pad he plugged in next to Piper's bed and then stuck in the pillowcase with the pillow. Then he laid the pillow on the bed next to Piper near the wall. There was barely enough room for it. He turned it on its lowest setting and then moved to sit on the opposite side of the bed at her legs.

"What do you think?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at her. "Does it feel a little less lonely in here?"

There were a few moments where Piper thought Jacob wasn’t going to come. She could hear him moving about the house but the walls of her room were already making her feel like they were closing in. She remembered the apartment, how Mama had been laying so that she was against the door. Piper hadn’t even been able to shut the door. She would spend hours watching the doorframes, just sitting on the couch. Piper had felt like a ghost those few days and the feeling always crept back into her bones when she was alone, that numb and dead feeling.

Then Jacob walked into the room, chasing that feeling away. She shook her head so that she could focus on Jacob. She watched as he set up the cd player then placed something inside a pillow case and set it next to her between her and the wall. She reached forward and touched it, finding it warm.

“A little less.” Piper agreed with a nod, settling back down on the bed. She hugged Bruce and leaned her back against the warm pillow.” D-Does Julian hate me now?” She asked, not looking at Jacob as she stared at the cd player.

"No," Jacob said firmly. "You were scared. People sometimes do things they'd never do otherwise when they're scared. Screaming is just... screaming does bad things to him, and he has a hard time dealing with it, but he'll understand." He reached over and patted the bed. He intended to pat her knee, but she disappeared under the blankets. It took him two tries to find her knee.

"Would you like for me to tell you a story?" he asked, not sure where to go from here.

While it was nice to hear that Julian didn’t hate it, Piper still felt guilty for yelling at Julian. She didn’t understand how she could go to him if she was scared or if she had an accident. She didn’t feel like she deserved any of their kindness right now. She was just too scared to be alone so she selfishly didn’t ask Jacob to leave. She moved her knee away after Jacob patted it.

“ Um, that’s okay. You don’t have to.” She muttered a little awkwardly, hugging Bruce to her chest. She yawned again and then, after about ten minutes, the young girl was snoring softly as her sides rose and fell in the rhythm to her breathing

"Right, well, there was this little brown truck, and he found this road that was too bumpy and hard to drive over," Jacob started slowly and hesitatingly. He rambled on for a few minutes, making up the story as he went about hero trucks repairing a road. He realized that Piper was asleep and breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe one of them should stop by the library and pick up some books for ten-year-olds. Then he'd at least have something he could read out loud. He got up, checked to make sure the heating pad was not too warm, and tucked the heated pillow against Piper gently. That done, he turned down the music until he could barely hear it and stepped out, leaving the door open and the nightlight on low. The bathroom nightlight gleamed brightly in the dark as he turned off the rest of the lights. Jackson's door remained firmly closed, and he left it that way, stepping into his own room.

Julian sat on the floor on the bed he'd made for himself next to Jacob's bed, his face buried in his hands. Awkward boxes and stacks of books filled every open space left in Jacob's room, giving him only a small amount of room to shuffle in toward his bed. This was not going to be a very sustainable setup for them, but it would work for now until they figured something else out. He edged his way inside and closed the door before going to sit next to Jacob.

"I failed her," Jules mumbled through his fingers.

"Nah, you didn't fail her," Jacob started to say.

"Yes, I did! I didn't correctly identify the signs of stress, I didn't properly de-escalate the situation, and when she panicked, I panicked, too!" Jules wailed into his hands. "I just... I couldn't take it, but I should have been able to. For her sake. How is she ever going to trust me after this?"

Jacob sighed and put his arm around his brother. "Jules, you study animal behavior, not human behavior. They're not exactly a one-to-one trade-off. Besides, you're doing far better with her than I expected of someone who'd rather leave the store with nothing than ask an associate where to find something. It's going to be okay. She feels bad about what happened, too, and I bet it's going to be awkward, but we'll handle things. Okay? We'll figure this out. One crisis at a time day by day."

Jules turned, and Jacob took a bit of time to hug his brother properly until he felt better. After than, he told Jules what he'd told Piper about waking them up and opened the door to their room before getting into bed. He had to get up at four the next morning to get to work on time. He fell asleep quickly, though Jules lay awake for longer.

The next morning, at four in the morning, Jacob got up and quietly got himself breakfast before getting dressed and heading out for work. Jules and Jackson slept longer, not getting up until six. Jackson instantly set about making breakfast while Jules sat on the floor of the living room with his laptop on the coffee table doing a little bit of work from home.

Piper had hoped her first night with her brothers would be dreamless but unfortunately, the dreams still came to haunt her. Once again, she was trapped in the apartment with the corpse of her mother. The windows revealed nothing but empty darkness and like always, her mother’s corpse would rise and scream at her that it was ‘her fault’ and how she should have known to call for help or had she hoped that her mother would die?

Piper woke up with a strangled gasp, bolting right up in bed with loud pants and her chest heaving. Her panic only worsened when she felt cold wetness between her legs and she pulled back the blankets to see that the sheets were wet. Her mind went blanl, trying to see through the panic so that she could solve the problem at hand.

Luckily, Bruce was spared and Piper made sure to grab him on her way to the door. She peeked her head out but could only see Julian. Where was Jacob? She could feel tears of frustration pricking her eyes, her sweats were cold, wet, and itchy. She could change but what about the sheets? She couldn’t hide them but what if Jacob was wrong and Julian was mad at her?

She sniffled, rubbing at her eyes. She could hear something in the kitchen but she would have to run past Julian. She went to her bag, taking out the last clean pair of clothing then changed into them. She probably needed to shower but she could wait for that. She was wearing grey sweatpants and a yellow sweatshirt with several holes and a few dark stains that Piper was sure was blood though not her own.

She decided to just run past Julian and head straight to the kitchen, though she was disappointed to see Jackson. Still, he was probably a better choice than Julian so she walked over to him and poked his leg to his attention.” I-I need help in my room.” She whispered, her eyes red rimmed and wet.

Jules saw Piper run to the kitchen and wondered what was going on, but as she hadn't even glanced at him, he stayed where he was, thinking that perhaps she needed something or wanted to talk to Jack.

Jackson paused in the middle of flipping a frying egg, causing the yoke to burst. He muttered a mild curse of annoyance but turned away to look at Piper. "Yeah? What's wrong?" His frown deepened at her eyes. "Are you hurt? It looks like you've been crying. Or the bed?" He moved a step away so he could call through the doorway. "Jules!"

"Yes?" Jules called back.

"Come watch the eggs for me, will you? They're almost done. You just have to plate them." He set his spatula aside and nodded to Piper. "Come on. Let's go deal with the problem." He let Piper go first and lead the way to the bedroom as Jules came to take over in the kitchen.

Piper already regretted her decision when he muttered in annoyance and she shrunk back a bit. She froze and tried to talk but nothing came out. She wanted Julian. She should have gone to him but she couldn’t, right? Where was Jacob? She flinched when he mentioned the bed, her face turning red.” I-I’m not hurt.” She muttered, pulling Bruce to her chest.

He called for Jules and she secretly hoped that he was calling to pass her over to him. Of course, she wasn’t so lucky. Jack just called him over to watch the eggs. He then said they could go deal with the problem. Piper hugged Bruce even tighter and looked at Julian, almost longingly, then walked Jack to her room.

“J-Just tell me…where the sheets are and the washer and I can do it! I can do it…” She had never made a bed before but she could figure it out, right? Piper paused outside her room.

“I don’t do it on purpose!” She quickly told him defensively.” So…So you can’t be mean about it, Kate said you can’t!” She added, trying to glare at him but it came out as a weak scowl.

Jack looked at Piper, genuinely confused. "I didn't think you did it on purpose. I doubt it's something anyone does on purpose. But it's still a problem to be fixed because you don't want to sleep on a gross bed, right? I know I wouldn't." He frowned vaguely. "We can change it... soon as I remember where... Oh! Right, there's sheets at the top of the closet."

He headed into the bedroom and opened the small closet. One set of sheets sat neatly folded in the far back corner and far out of Piper's reach. Jack had to stand on tip-toe to reach them. As he did that, he grunted, "Can you pull off the comforter? If it didn't get wet, just toss it in the corner for now." He finally retrieved the set of wolly brown sheets and looked them over. "These'll be really warm."

It was about then that he realized the CD player was playing at very low volume. He reached over and turned it off without really thinking about it. Then he set the clean sheets on the desk and went about pulling the old ones off without so much as a grimace or a wince of disgust. He was cool and methodical about the process as he wrapped up the wet sheet in the drier top sheet and set them off to the side after making sure the bed underneath was also dry.

“No! I don’t want to sleep on a gross bed!” Piper told him indignantly, crossing her arms with a small pout. She hadn’t really thought that Jackson would be so calm about everything! She stood aside and let Jackson in, watching as he went to go get the sheets. He had to stand on the tip of his tippest toe to even reach them!

“How was I suppose to reach those?” Piper asked grumpily. The combination of not being a morning person and wetting the bed making her not unlike her grumpy brother. She took the comforter and winced at the wetness.” It’s wet.” She mumbled with a frown as she set Bruce on the night stand and pulled it all the way off.

“I’m sorry.” She muttered though she didn’t really know what she was apologizing for. Wetting the bed? Screaming last night? Just dropping into their lives like a sack of unwanted potatoes? Or maybe she was sorry that she was even born at all. Sometimes she wished that she hadn’t been.” I don’t know how to make out the bed. Mama never gave me sheets for the couch.”

"That's alright, everyone has to learn everything at some point. It's not born knowledge," Jack said, thinking her "sorry" was attached to the fact that she didn't know how to make the bed. He took the comforter and put it with the other wet sheets to be dealt with later. Then he took the new sheets. "This is called a fitted sheet, I guess because it 'fits' around the mattress. It has these elastic corners that are a pain in the ass to fold properly. This is the top, this is the bottom. And you put it on like this."

He walked her through how to make the bed, pointing out to her how she could do things and lifting up the mattress to make it easier for her to slip the sheets under the corners. Then he had her help him pull the flat sheet up, taking clear satisfaction in getting it straight and flat before tucking the bottom in under the mattress as well. New pillowcases, the pillows went on the bed, and then he put Bruce on the pillows as if he was reclining on a pillow throne.

"And that's how you make a bed," he told Piper with a satisfied nod. "I'll get the comforter washed so you can put it on later."

Jules stepped into the doorway. "Breakfast is ready. Oh, dear, did you have an accident, Piper? I'm sorry." He paused, looking at Piper's shirt. "That was one of Jacob's," he murmured, remembering something from long ago. He shook himself and asked her, "Have you changed already? I didn't hear the shower going. Did you change before showering? Jack, did you prioritize changing the bed?"

Jack glanced at Piper and swore. "Ah, sorry. I didn't even think about it. You should go get cleaned up, kid."

Jules smiled at Piper. "Why don't you get another set of clean clothes and come take a quick shower before breakfast? You'll feel a lot better. I'll show you how to work the shower."

Piper’s eyes widened a little as Jackson clearly swore infront of her though she couldn’t help but giggle a little at how casual he seemed to let it fly from his mouth.” You said a bad word.” She sounded more amused than accusatory. She then helped him make her bed, trying her best to memorize all of the instructions so that she could do it on her own.

Jackson won another smile from her when he posed Bruce on the pillows. She smiled at Bruce, patting his head though the smile faded a little when Julian walked into the room. She felt like he was being way nicer than she deserved after last night. She had yelled at him! Like Mama!

Julian suggested that she take a shower and change into some clean clothes.” I don’t have anymore.” She said softly, not looking at Julian and playing with the hem of her shirt. Her legs did still feel itchy so a shower might help. She picked up Bruce off the bed, hugging him to her chest.

“I-I’m sorry I yelled at you, Julian.” Piper spoke in a soft whisper, shuffling her feet nervously.” I’m really, really sorry.”

Julian had about to say something about to say something about Piper's clothes, but he stopped at her apology. He stopped what he was doing and came to kneel in front of her. "Thank you for apologising," he said gently. "It means a lot to me. I knew you didn't mean it, but it did still hurt. I appreciate you making the effort to apologize, and I forgive you." He held out his arms, offering her a hug, but he would not be offended if she didn't want it.

Jack carefully stepped around them and went out to make sure breakfast was set up properly and to give them a little bit of space.

Piper could have cried when Julian accepted her apology though she didn’t because she had cried enough for the last twenty-four hours. She put Bruce down on the bed and then immediately had her arms around Julian’s neck, clinging to him like he was going to disappear.” I didn’t want to be alone. I was always alone…and I see her in my dreams. All cold and dead but she’s still yelling at me.” She was shaking as she rambled on.

She buried her face into his shoulder.” Y-You don’t hate me?” She knows what Jacob had said but she needed to hear it from Julian.

Julian squeezed her a little tighter at her admittance about her dreams. "No," he said softly. "I most definitely do not hate you. Not one little bit. I don't think I ever could hate you, and you never have to be alone like that again. I promise you. We'll figure out how to make bedtime better for you. I promise that, too. We'll find a way to make the dreams go away." He gently rubbed her back.

“ Jacob said that you didn’t but I had to make sure.” Piper mumbled, pulling away a little bit as Julian told her that he would never hate her and that she would never be alone again. She gave him a bit of an unsure look.” Jack…Jack asked Kate what would happen if I was too much and she said that I would be sent away to a group home.” She was hugging him again.” You gotta tell me if I am and I’ll fix it. I don’t wanna get sent away and I’ll make Jack like me.” She promised, squeezing Julian as her body shook a bit.” I don’t want to get sent away.”

"Piper, deep breaths," Julian said gently. "We told you before that the only reason he asked about that is because he's afraid that we won't be able to care for you properly for your sake. It is not, 'You are too much.' It's, 'We are not enough.' It would not be your problem. You do not have anything to fix. We don't know what it is to take care of a little girl, and we don't want to get it wrong. Sending you away would be our absolute last resort after trying everything else we possibly could. As it stands right now, we haven't even had a full day together. That's hardly enough time to discover anything about each other. We have to give things time to learn how to work together. It's way too early to even think about being sent away. Okay?"